By Brenda Sexton-The Courier-Herald

Enumclaw School Board members asked Superintendent Mike Nelson to adjust the graduation requirements for current juniors and seniors to 23 credits, one less than now required, while district administrators monitor its recently implemented credit retrieval system for success.

The board examined the district's graduation requirements at its July 2 workshop and plans to continue discussion at its regular meeting at 7 p.m. July 23 in the district's board room.

In 2004, the board increased the number of credits for the class of 2008 from 22 to 24.

According to then-Enumclaw High School Principal Terry Parker, now the district's curriculum director, there were a number of reasons for the increase in credits; a primary reason was to drive a more quality program by requiring courses like geometry, algebra and biology for graduation.

The state made changes as well. Students are now required to earn a credit in art before graduating.

&#8220It's definitely tougher,” Parker said. &#8220When we put this out we were definitely on the front edge.”

Going hand-in-hand with the increase in graduation requirements were suppose to be a series of supports like the option to make-up a failed course outside of school time, the option to test out of a class or substitute community work for credit.

Other programs like credit for passage of the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL), substituting a varsity sport for a physical education credit and earning credit for time spent in Small School Time (SST) have been established. Students can also earn credit for zero-hour classes, those that occur before school like music programs.

&#8220The program is more rigorous than districts around us and across the state,” Parker said.

&#8220It's still visionary and it still makes sense,” Nelson said. &#8220We're trying to do all we can to support the system.”

Enumclaw was one of the few school districts that did not offer a credit retrieval program. That changes Monday as the district launches its credit retrieval program and, although the program is nearly full and should help many of the 35 percent of the class of 2008 that is currently credit deficient, it will not help all.

&#8220We're struggling a little bit with the 24 (credits),” Nelson admitted. He said he didn't want to bring the 23-credit option to the board, but morally, he said, there's an obligation to have an infrastructure in place that supports the 24-credit system.

&#8220How unreasonable were our expectations?” asked board member Nancy Merrill, who along with Dale Holland and Lorianne Taff, were part of the decision to increase graduation requirements.

Parker said the expectations are not unreasonable, but reiterated the support needs to be in place. He reasoned with the credits for sports, SST and WASL, about 60 percent of the support was there. Credit retrieval will fill another chunk.

&#8220The piece that was missing was more standards-based and that didn't happen,” he said.

Board member Cathy Dahlquist questioned the need to decrease the credit standard since, conceivable a student can earn more than 24 credits. With the addition of credit retrieval, she said, there is plenty of opportunity for students to meet graduation requirements.

Taff favored a straight drop to 23 credits.

&#8220We wanted to raise the bar and thought there would be support,” Taff said. She said the board's good intentions at the time left kids, approximately 60, shy of the target. The current system, &#8220leaves no room for the things life throws their way,” she said.

The majority of the board favored a drop to 23 for a period with continued monitoring of the system.

There would be no change in rigor, Holland said, but a reduction in an elective credit.

In other business at the workshop, the board discussed flag etiquette. Proper respect and treatment of the American flag was brought to the board's attention by two incidents - one reported through a letter to the editor in The Courier-Herald regarding an incident at Black Diamond, the other through a citizen's statement at a meeting concerning Kibler Elementary.

Both parties were upset with the lack of respect given the flag during its raising or lowering at the schools.

Dahlquist requested a policy for staff and administrators to reference. After some discussion, boardmembers agreed the flag should be treated and displayed properly, but the rules governing that task should be outlined in a procedure rather than as a policy and it should be the district's principals and Nelson who oversee that instruction.

Nelson was expected to present a procedure to the board at its July meeting.

Brenda Sexton can be reached at bsexton@courierherald.com.